The Retreat of the State and its Transfer of Responsibility: The Intergenerational War

Abstract

In this article, the socially constructed nature of the conflict between the generations, or the “intergenerational war,” is explored, with a description of the two major fronts of this battle: a health care financing axis and a caregiving axis. Basic to the health care financing axis is the assumption that certain individuals and populations represent an increasing and unreasonable social burden; the caregiving axis gives ideological support to familial and filial responsibility. The politics of mystification perpetuates the idea that these two axes are unrelated and that generational transfers are independent rather than interdependent. Both permit abdication of the state from social responsibility for human needs and massive budgetary reallocations to defense and tax cuts for the wealthy. An alternative approach derives from the principle of universal life-course entitlement to basic human needs.